From banks to the backbone

NITIN CHUGH SHIFTS FROM FRONTLINE BANKING TO BUILDING THE TECH RAILS OF GLOBAL FINANCE AT PERFIOS

- MAHESH NAYAK

WHEN NITIN CHUGH walks into Perfios as managing director and group CEO, he brings more than a résumé.

He brings a playbook—honed over nearly three decades of reshaping how India banks, borrows and pays. Few executives have straddled legacy banking and digital disruption as seamlessly or as consistently as he has.

His career has been less a linear climb and more a series of deliberate rewrites of the financial services script—across HDFC Bank, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank and the State Bank of India (SBI). The common thread: using technology not as an add-on, but as the core engine of growth.

Chugh’s defining act came at HDFC Bank, where he rose to become group head of digital banking. Between 2013 and 2019, when much of Indian banking was still cautiously testing digital channels, he pushed decisively ahead. Mobile-first was not a buzzword under his watch—it was doctrine. Payments, online banking and customer engagement were rebuilt around the smartphone, fundamentally altering how millions interacted with their bank. By the time he left, HDFC Bank had become a benchmark for digital adoption.